February 10, 2013

Augmented-reality app translates newspapers for kids

Color me deeply skeptical, but intrigued: The BBC reports on an app that modifies the paper version of The Tokyo Shimbun in ways kids might appreciate:

“What it’s really about is something that’s been talked about for a long time, about content being presented in different ways depending on who the user is,” he said.

“It means two versions of the content – a grown-up one and the kids one. That has enormous potential. It also tackles a big gap in young readership.

This makes me oddly wistful: I’m Proust-ing out, almost smelling the newsprint & listening to the “funny papers” rattle as my dad read me cartoons, or as he’d read news & obits with a drink after work. The real obit, of course, is for the paper newspaper: I’m afraid all this will show up as a quaintly hilarious discovery that flits by on some future adult’s in-optic-nerve newsfeed. But whatever; I’m suddenly, and surprisingly, all choked up.